Chapter 66: Demon Dogs

The crystals in the walls glowed a soft, pale blue.

They were embedded in the rock at uneven intervals, and they gave off just enough light to see by. The tunnel was narrow, with a low, rough ceiling, and the air was cold and damp. Water dripped somewhere far ahead.

The four of them moved in a simple formation. Leon and Mark walked at the front, side by side. Kira stayed in the center with her wand held loosely in her hand. Sophia took the back, her scythe resting against her shoulder, her eyes sweeping the dark behind them.

This was the first floor.

They had taken a different route from the other adventurers who had come in. The main tunnel was crowded, so Leon had picked a side passage, and the sounds of the others had faded into silence a while ago. Now there was only the scuff of their boots and the drip of water.

"It’s pretty quiet," Mark muttered.

"It’s a dungeon," Kira said. "It’s supposed to be quiet."

"Yeah but we should have heard or seen some monsters ."

Leon said nothing. He kept his staff in front of him, and his eyes on the dark.

Then he heard it.

A low growl, from somewhere ahead. Then another, from the left. Then claws, scraping fast against stone.

"Here they come," Leon said.

Shapes burst out of the darkness.

They were dogs, about a meter tall, with bold red fur that bristled along their backs. Each of them had four eyes glowing in a row, and their mouths were wide open, lined with razor-sharp teeth. About ten of them rushed out of the tunnel at once, snarling, their paws kicking up dust.

They were fast. They were agile, too, bouncing off the walls and the ceiling as they came. One bite from those jaws could take a person out of the fight if they were unlucky, and everyone knew it.

’Hold them back. Don’t let them get close.’

Leon stepped forward and pointed his staff at the oncoming pack.

"Ice lances."

Multiple lances of ice formed in the air around him, sharp and clear, glittering in the crystal light. He swept the staff forward, and every one of them shot out.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

The lances tore down the tunnel. He did not fire them in a line, but spread them out wide, aiming for legs and flanks, anywhere that would slow the dogs down. A lance pierced the shoulder of the lead dog, and it let out a shriek and crashed to the ground. Another one caught a dog mid-leap and pinned it to the wall. A third took two legs from a dog, and it tumbled across the stone.

A few were wounded. Two or three were killed on the spot. The rest were slowed, and the pack broke apart, some of them skidding to a halt and others tripping over their fallen friends.

But not all of them stopped.

Three dogs broke through the gap, still at full speed, their eyes locked on Leon. He raised his staff, but one was already on him. It leaped, and its jaws opened wide.

BAM!

A metal fist slammed into the side of its head.

Mark had stepped in front of him. His metal arm swung through the air and connected with the dog’s skull, knocking it sideways into the wall. It hit the ground and lay twitching.

"Stay behind me," Mark said.

"I’m fine," Leon said.

Another dog came at Mark from the front. He raised his metal arm and let it bite down on his forearm. The teeth screeched against the metal, and he shoved it away and swung his fist into its jaw, knocking it down. His other hand lit up, a ball of flame forming in his palm.

"Eat this."

He thrust it forward, and a stream of fire burst out, rolling over the dog on the floor and the one behind it. They howled. The smell of burned fur filled the tunnel. Mark’s face was set and hard, and his breath came sharp, but his hands did not stop moving. He punched with the metal arm, burned with the other, and kept himself in front of Leon.

Leon stepped to the side. A dog dove at his legs, and he swung the end of his staff down and caught it across the nose, then pointed it at its head.

SHING!

A lance of ice punched through its skull, and it fell limp.

He turned to the next. A dog jumped from the wall, claws spread, and he dropped under it and fired a lance upward as it passed over him. The lance caught it in the belly, and it crashed behind him.

[You have gained mana fragments.]

The system chimed softly in the corner of his vision, the way it always did after a kill. He did not pause to read it. He shifted his stance and aimed again, and another dog fell.

A dark shape swept past his shoulder.

Sophia had moved up from the back.

She did not need much room. In the tight space of the tunnel, her scythe moved in short, precise arcs, never too wide, never wasted. The blade flickered through the dim light, and every time it passed, a dog fell. A swing at the neck. A reverse cut at the legs. A step, a spin, and the shaft of the scythe cracked against a skull before the blade came around to finish it.

SLASH! SLASH!

"Watch your side," she said calmly.

"I see it," Leon replied, and sent a lance that way.

They kept fighting. The first pack was nearly done, but the tunnel was not quiet for long. More growls echoed out of the dark. More red fur came rushing, more eyes glowing in fours. A fresh wave poured out of a side passage, and the numbers were larger than before.

"There’s more!" Kira shouted.

"How many are in here?" Mark grunted, slamming his fist into a dog’s jaw.

Kira pushed through to the front.

She lifted her wand, the tip glowing green, and drew in a breath.

"Move!" she called.